The front doors of my house are 9' tall and are narrow- about 20" each. In front of those are storm shutters that are rail and stile inside, but rather than a panel, the frame is skinned on the outside with 1" wood, so the outside is smooth and the inside decorative.
The previous owner replaced the doors with ones he made from the worst knot-filled pine he could find, painted the inside white, and left the outside UNFINISHED! He said he likes the look of unfinished wood. ??? The knots were filled with the wrong color of putty and left that way. I suspect the doors are just edge glued or possibly biscuit joined. I can get some beautiful mahogany locally and want to build new front doors in rail and stile. I do like the thin center panel and thick outer panels for looks, but it seems it needs a crossmember for structure.
I found on eBay (of all places) a picture of my house taken in 1941 and the original exterior shutters had little glass windows to let in light when the shutters are closed. The shutters for the downstairs doors have the lights (windows) but they have been plugged with wood. I thought about doing a small square glass panel at the top like that.
The original doors were louvered. The original owner had saved them but he cannot find them in his warehouse. I wouldn't be against a louvered door, except we don't always close the shutters when we go out and louvered would be easier to kick in. There is already a louvered panel above the doors which is great for letting the breeze blow through.
If you have read this far, I thank you. What are your thoughts on a rail and stile? Would it need an additional crossmember or can I do something like the existing door but with rail and stile construction? Any votes for louvered doors?
Below pics: doors, door opened to show shutter, and old photo. You can see the open shutter in the far left of the old image has a little window in it. BTW, I don't like the panels on the shutters for the door. They are not proportioned properly. If I had to multiple panels I would do only two, with the top longer than the bottom.
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